MAY 24, 2021 – One of my made-up maxims (page 47 of my imaginary book, Eric’s Adages) is this: To give a statistic meaning, you need to give it company. Whether the context is economics, demographics, or scientific research, to understand a figure, a number, a data point, you need to have a reference point—often many.
I find that this maxim also has application within the nuanced arenas of history, politics, and current events. To understand an outcry, a demand, a critique, a perception, you need reference points—lots of them.
For example, take the lightning-rod phrase, “Black Lives Matter.” When many perfectly well-meaning white folks hear or see it, they jump off the curb indignantly, saying, “Yeah, but don’t all lives matter?” I encountered this white version (again) just the other day—in reaction to the ostensibly permanent collection of “Black Lives Matter” signs in our neighborhood.
Concomitantly, I read about Republican efforts to legislate against “voter fraud.” “Voter fraud”? A bad thing to be sure, but what are the reference points that suggest the necessity of legislation? In other words, where are the data points, the instances, the evidence of actual fraud? Democrats call such legislation “voter suppression,” which, of course, Republicans deny—straight-faced and in lock-step with directives from You-Know-Who.
To grasp the full, anti-democratic treachery of the Republican agenda, a person needs historical reference points. I’m finding these in abundance as I scuba-dive further into the history of the voter registration efforts of such heroes as Bob Moses, Medgar Evers, and many others in the Deep South in the early 1960s. Despite die-hard resistance and violence by savage segregationists—many in positions of authority—and abject fear and resignation by the majority of blacks, the heroes pressed on amidst impossible odds. Black citizens weren’t discounted to 3/5s. Their fundamental rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, were reduced to zero, thanks to the over-riding premium assigned to “states rights,” a euphemism for “white supremacy.”
In absorbing the details, the student of history can’t avoid connections between bigotry and suppression; between suppression and poverty; between poverty and powerlessness; between powerlessness and despair; between despair and the threat of upheaval; between the threat of upheaval and . . . bigotry. And so on, like a crippling tax on our national potential and a scathing indictment of our national character.
To any white person, no matter how well-intentioned, no matter how “non-racist” by self-proclamation, who counters “Black Lives Matter” with “yeah, but all lives matter,” I say, read your history. Nay, study your history. See and understand, grasp and ponder our nation’s historical reference points. Connect the dots between “states rights” and “suppression of voter rights”; between “suppression of voter rights” and the continuation of “Black Lives Don’t Matter.”
With the perspective of historical reference points, white folks offended by “Black Lives Matter” might slowly emerge from the shadow of history and help lead to a brighter future—one in which America, “land of the free” in anthem becomes such a place in reality.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
